My skills are a little bit different in every regard because I have ADHD. As soon as I become interested in something, I make every effort to educate myself on it. I've always behaved that way. My father used to tell me as a child that I was "addicted to addicts" because I was unable to stop playing with any toy, video game, or other passion of mine until the day that I just quit enjoying being drawn to those things.
Now that I am an adult software developer and Computer Science student graduating college, it's a daily but gratifying struggle to maintain my interest in these types of things. In programming, I discovered an endless world. Am I free? I am starting to use Vim. Do I have free time? I'll read some topics about computer science, and it's been that way since I started. Sure, there are days when I am highly focused and productive. But there are also days when I just want to take a deep breath and focus on something else. I do not know how you have been or if you are going through something like that right now. But if so, we have something in common.
I have been in treatment and taking pills since my psychiatric doctor concluded after a few sessions that I have ADHD, and the process has been amazing. I was so anxious about everything, and that took a toll on me. That's gotten better now; of course, I am still an anxious person, but not like I used to be. What I am saying is that we draw a parallel between love and disinterest when it comes to programming and all of our fluid but solid passions. There are days and days. We must celebrate the good and productive days.
I would love to hear more stories about programmers with ADHD. Please feel free to comment below and tell about your struggles and how you daily deal with ADHD, or whatever you feel free and comfortable talking about.
Top comments (2)
Depends on what type of ADHD you have, but being able to hyperfocus can definitely be a super power with programming. Chasing loose threads and notifications can quickly overwhelm though.
Keep your life simple. Think about just 1 thing to accomplish each day (not a TODO list, just one single thing) and give yourself the rest of the day to do what interests you. And don’t forget to be a good friend :)
Sometimes the programming universe is very difficult, in addition to the imposter syndrome and all the self-charges, we have external charges.